A wide variety of methods are available to track automatically consumer exposure to certain types of media, including television and radio. Television and radio employ receivable transmissions, whether visual, audible or otherwise electronically receivable, and thus are well-suited for measurement via electronic devices.
Other forms of consumer activity, however, do not employ such types of transmissions and thus are not readily measurable. In particular, consumer publication reading activity, including reading of magazines, newspapers, books, etc., is technologically inert. Currently, libraries, book stores and other commercial establishments that sell books and other types of publications employ radio frequency identification devices (RFIDs) as a way of preventing theft of such items. However, the actual purchase, renting or borrowing of a publication itself is insufficient information to identify or otherwise ascertain whether the publication has been read, or has been read multiple times, or to identify other useful information regarding the consumer's usage of that publication.
In view of the foregoing, publication usage tracking has heretofore principally entailed the use of consumer surveys and diaries, where consumers manually record or otherwise identify (e.g., during telephone interviews) their readership activity. Unfortunately, surveys and diaries are labor-intensive, intrusive to everyday life, and prone to either intentional and/or inadvertent misreporting.
It is desired, therefore, to seek ways of gathering data relating to publication usage that are easy to implement, error-resistant and minimally invasive to consumers.